Guest notes from Christine Kuennen 

Senior Manager, Metro Mobility

Merriam-Webster defines resiliency as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or change." It is a word for our times.

We’ve all seen too much change and too much adversity over this past year: the COVID-19 health crisis, our divided politics, our collective concern for injustice, and the insecurity of civil unrest. We all see and feel the pain unfolding in our own community, and we know it is touching too many lives.

The reality is that adjusting to any of this has not been easy. The sense of recovery we all crave can sometimes feel so close and at the same time so far away.

So, how do we build resiliency? For me, on those tough days when just about every aspect of daily life feels affected, I find it is helpful to go back to our base – our core – and stay mindful of the role we play in keeping our community vibrant, healthy, and connected.

Our service to others is the foundation of our resiliency.

To quote a Metro Mobility bus operator, “I am not a bus driver. I don’t provide rides. I provide independence, mobility, and dignity.”

All of us at Metro Mobility are grateful that we’ve been able to adjust our service and deliver hope to so many people in the face of this pandemic – well beyond the scope of our regular service. In addition to the nearly 1.5 million regular Metro Mobility rides, we made thousands of food shelf runs and delivered groceries and other essential goods to households most in need. We’ve made it easier for our customers to stay safe by increasing curbside services. We’ve offered symptomatic customers a safe ride for testing and other medical care. We also opened our doors to essential health care workers by providing more than 200,000 rides to work over the past year. Our service continues 24/7/365.

There has also been positive news about better testing, reduced infection rates, and increased access to free vaccines. This brings us hope for a return to normalcy over the upcoming year and for positive change on the horizon. More than 60% of Metro Mobility’s regular ridership has returned. Adding in the continuing rides for health care workers, we are now delivering 80% of the rides we did prior to the pandemic. This is an encouraging sign and is a true light at the end of the tunnel.

We also recently launched our new online booking platform, making it easier for our customers to manage their own trips, which is an important step in offering more independence and mobility. Even as we provide more rides, we must remain vigilant and steadfast in our core values. The safety and well-being of our operators, our customers, and all those who are on the front lines will always be our number one priority.

I also want to acknowledge the stress and hardship that the past year has brought to all of us. We are all first and foremost mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, caregivers, and friends. As we work hard in service of others, we must also care for ourselves, our families, and each other. I’d like to thank everyone around the Met Council who has supported us and those we serve with strength, creativity, flexibility, and kindness.

Most of all, I want to thank and celebrate our Metro Mobility staff and contractors for the great work they have done to support our service amidst so much change. All of you have my sincere appreciation and support. We’re all in this together in support of each other, and we are proud to serve.

If you feel a little heat when you go past the State Capitol these days, there's a good reason as less than two weeks remain before the legislature’s constitutional adjournment deadline of May 17.

The House and Senate have now passed all their major omnibus bills, and the focus now shifts to conference committees, which are tasked with negotiating the difference between House and Senate proposals. Legislators will need to agree to policy and budget items to establish the state’s next biennial budget.

There are substantial differences between the House and Senate budget proposals. Public safety reform, use of federal relief funds, and the Governor’s emergency powers are among the major policy issues that will also be debated as part of the end of session negotiations. Conference committees have begun meeting, and legislators will be working around the clock as the adjournment deadline approaches.

Go for a deep dive in the most recent legislative summary from Government Affairs (PDF).

Watch local media for the latest developments heading down to the final hours on Monday, May 17.

Questions? Email Brooke Bordson in Government Affairs.

When accessing Learn, you will arrive on a new login screen asking if you are an employee with or without a Council-issued email address. Select the button that best describes you and sign in accordingly:

• Employees without Council-issued email addresses log in with their five-digit employee ID and Learn password.
• Employees with Council-issued email addresses log in using their network account.

Check the box for “Remember my selection” before clicking the button if you want to bypass this page in the future.

For accessing Learn using a direct link, as opposed to clicking the Learn icon on the Talent Hub MetNet page, the web address will change to metc.sumtotal.host on May 12.

The Learn Employee Quick Start Guide and FAQ documents on the Talent Hub page will be updated with this new information during the week of May 10.  

Please contact Learn@metc.state.mn.us if you have questions.

Johnson & Johnson vaccine resumes
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is being administered again for all adults. The use of the vaccine was paused last month after some cases of an extremely rare type of blood clot were reported in people who had received the vaccine. The pause allowed time for experts to review vaccine safety data, which showed that the benefits of this vaccine outweigh the very small risk.

CDC updates outdoor mask guidelines for those fully vaccinated
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidance on outdoor mask use for fully vaccinated Americans. People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after they receive their final vaccine dose. Review the full guidance on the CDC's website.

Meeting the needs of staff through external partners
We are continuing to coordinate with state and county partners to make vaccine appointments directly available to our staff. If you still need a vaccine appointment, please email Lisa Belland at Lisa.Belland@metc.state.mn.us so we can make sure you receive our notifications for available appointments through these external partners. Since so many employees have accessed the COVID-19 vaccine through other channels, at this time the Met Council will not be hosting on-site vaccination clinics.

Process changes and updated form for COVID-19 Leave requests
Human Resources is responding to a high volume of COVID-19 Leave requests and is working with partners in Metro Transit and Environmental Services to quickly approve the use of Emergency Sick Pay for vaccine-related absences. As a reminder, employees may use a maximum of 24 hours of COVID-19 Leave if they have a reaction to the vaccine and need to take time off, but only if they have Emergency Sick Pay time available. Employees may not use COVID-19 Leave to get a vaccine. Please follow the new instructions and use the updated form for requesting COVID-19 Leave, which were included in the weekly COVID-19 all-staff email.

Tools to help you find vaccine appointments:

• Sign up for the COVID-19 Vaccine Connector to get updates on vaccine opportunities and be entered into the random selection process for the state's Community Vaccination Program sites. You can now directly schedule vaccine appointments at the state's community vaccination sites using Vaccine Connector. 
• Contact your healthcare provider, local pharmacy, or use the Vaccine Locator Map to search for vaccine providers in your area.
• If you have a HealthPartners medical plan, make sure your contact information in your account is up to date. HealthPartners is contacting eligible patients to schedule a vaccination when they have appointments available. Learn more on the HealthPartners COVID-19 site.
• As part of M Health Fairview’s COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Efforts, they are prioritizing communities of color and indigenous communities that have experienced disproportionately high rates of COVID-19. For an appointment, register through their COVID-19 Vaccine Screener.
• Go to CDC: VaccineFinder to schedule an appointment for a Pfizer vaccine at a pharmacy near you.
• Make sure you're reading the weekly all-staff COVID-19 email to get the latest on vaccination opportunities, guidelines, and more.
• For more information about the vaccine and how to find an appointment, visit the Minnesota Department of Health vaccine site.

Remember, it takes at least two weeks from the final vaccine dose to develop immunity. Even after you are fully vaccinated, you should continue to wear masks, practice social distancing, delay travel, and get tested if you are showing symptoms of COVID-19.

COVID-19 testing:

• Free COVID-19 community testing locations are available throughout the state.
• At-home test kits are offered by the state for all Minnesotans, free of charge.
• HealthPartners offers testing for Met Council employees who have a HealthPartners medical plan.

When Environmental Services Manager Bob Nordquist began his newest recording project in 2018, he planned to have it done in a year – well before anyone had heard words like “pandemic” and “lockdown” in the way we know them now.

But his ninth album of original music ran into serious trouble when he lost nearly half the songs in a computer crash at his friend’s recording studio in south Minneapolis.

Devastated by the loss, Nordquist and his band, Sargasso, were re-recording the lost songs in early 2020 when the pandemic struck, and then George Floyd was killed in the same neighborhood as the studio.

“It was a tough time,” said Nordquist, manager of ES Industrial Waste and Pollution Prevention, who is retiring next week after 34 years with the Met Council.

“We’d lost some great music and months of work, the band couldn’t be in the studio together, and suddenly the neighborhood was on fire,” he said.

“As everyone knows, it was a hard time to stay focused.”

[In the photos: (Top) Bob Nordquist at a pre-pandemic show at the Hat Trick in Saint Paul; (bottom) Bob, at left, a few years ago at the Cedar Cultural Centre, his new album cover at right.]

Fortunately, several songs had already been completed and some could be repaired. Using creative ways to record new music in a safe way, Nordquist was able to cobble together eight songs for the project, “A Place That Feels Like Home,” and it was finally released last November.

“It’s not the album I had envisioned, but it’s all good music and we’re all happy to have it out there,” he said, adding that he may eventually produce a “Sargasso 2.0” with all 12-14 songs he had begun preparing.

The music is an impressive extension of Nordquist’s past work in folk, rock, jazz, and space-age atmospheric stuff. Tough to describe, the new album leans heavily on world beat, percussion, and complex polyrhythms under soaring tenor saxophone, flute, and a gorgeous cello.

He attributes the overall sound to his growing interest in native music from places like Mali, Morocco, Belize, and Haiti. “We sometimes play in 5/4 time, or 7/8 or 6/8 … sometimes at the same time. It was a lot of fun.” He also credits his longtime bass player, musical partner, and co-producer, Leo Whitebird, who has deep roots in the local music scene.

Lyrics run the gamut from poetic and mystical to hard-hitting topical fare. Nordquist wrote all the songs, and although his own guitar is not featured a lot, he sings all the lead vocals.

A new future dawning

After 34 years as a staff engineer and manager with Industrial Waste, Nordquist is looking forward as a retiree to more free time for music. But as a committed environmentalist, he plans to further his work protecting local waterways. “I don’t ever foresee giving up on clean water,” he said.

More time also will yield a return to live performances, the sooner the better, and hopefully by mid-summer. He’s especially excited about bringing out his new songs in a live setting.

You can easily find Bob Nordquist solo and his band, Sargasso, on Facebook and YouTube.

How has the pandemic affected your day-to-day work?
Aside from working from home the biggest change for me has been helping out the communications team at the Minnesota Department of Health with pandemic-related media inquiries. The team there has been running nonstop the past 16 months, and a few extra hands from other agencies has helped them go from 12-hour days back to eight or nine hours per day. It’s a great team to get to know, and I’ve enjoyed learning about public health while we all work to end the pandemic.

What’s it like working through a pandemic?
I miss the in-person contact with my coworkers. While my cat is good company, he has a tendency to plop himself down on my keyboard and crash my Teams meetings.

How has your life changed outside of work?
Like most people, my haircuts have become less frequent, and I tend to forget that it’s “shaving day.” And I miss afterwork get-togethers with my Met Council friends. On the plus side, I’ve been using the time I used to spend commuting to do some woodworking and tackle some projects around the house. In the summer of 2020 I was part of an army of hundreds of thousands who decided to build new decks, increasing the demand for cedar wood and driving the price through the roof. But the deck looks great.

How has the pandemic affected your day-to-day work?
I don’t miss driving into work or even getting dressed for that matter, LOL! Being a “team player” took on a whole new meaning, as the other two admins and I (and having the best supervisor ever in Stephanie Paulson) had to work together more as a team than ever before, covering each other and making sure things were getting done in the office. I think working from home is way more productive and things get done more quickly, since you have work access no matter what time it is. Why save it for tomorrow when you can do it while watching the evening news or The Voice? And since I’m kind of a talker I had to get used to calling, using Microsoft Teams, and emailing people instead of going over to their desk. I’m really tired of emailing (I actually hate it!) and look forward to getting back downtown.

What’s it like working through a pandemic?
I think as a parent you worried way more about your kids than yourself. So, yeah, it was scary at times. It helped to listen to elderly voices who have been through other pandemics and the Depression; they made it through and so can we. After all, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I do think the pandemic wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if it would not have turned so political, which added anger and division to a difficult time.

How has your life changed outside of work?
My life did change a little. I’m so used to hanging out with friends, and I miss that. But I found a love for Pickleball, which combines parts of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong (hitting a wiffle ball over a tennis net). We played all year until January 4 and started right back up in March. I’ve actually grown to love Pickleball and have met a lot of really good people. Humans learn to adapt. You just have to embrace change and find something good in it all.

Cristi St. Marie

HRA Coordinator

Metro HRA

Primary duties
I confirm eligibility for program participants and assist with housing needs. I am excited to work for the Council and have housing participants from so many different areas around the Twin Cities.

Started
April 12

How does it feel to start a new job when everyone is working from home?
I was a little nervous, but everyone has done an awesome job in making the transition pretty seamless.

Hometown
Saint Paul

Current residence
Saint Paul (probably a lifer)

Family
I have two adult sons, both living in the Twin Cities.

Education
Degree in human services, having attended Century College and Metropolitan State University, Saint Paul

Experience
I was a property manager for many years, so the housing world is very familiar to me. I love doing my part to help prevent homelessness. After being on call 24 hours per day and shoveling sidewalks for so many years, it is nice to be on the “other side.” I worked for the Saint Paul Public Housing Authority for the past year and a half, before coming to the Met Council.

Other interests
I am a complete Minnesota Twins fanatic! I go to as many games as possible. I love to cook and bake and host as many get-togethers as time allows. I also love the Minnesota State Fair, having bonfires, doing crafts, and am a total foodie who loves to check out different establishments.

Phoua Vang

HRA Coordinator

Metro HRA

Primary duties
Processing Housing Choice Voucher annual certifications. Review and determine continuing eligibility of families on assisted housing.

Started
April 12

How does it feel to start a new job when everyone is working from home?
It’s a different approach to being introduced to the HRA staff. But everyone is so very welcoming and warm I feel as I am part of the team even though I am working remotely.

Hometown
I was born and raised in Saint Paul. I grew up in the project homes in Mt. Airy.

Current residence
Maplewood

Family
I am married with four children.

Education
B.A. in business management from Fresno Pacific University in Fresno, CA

Experience
I have worked in assisted housing for the past 10 years. Most of my training and experience was with project base voucher, project base rental assistance, low-income public housing, and tax credit programs where I was stationed at an apartment complex owned and operated by the Fresno Housing Authority in California.

Other interests
I enjoy reading a good book. I read mostly fantasy books and sci-fi, and occasionally many different genres. I also enjoy crocheting. My hobbies are a way to relieve some stress.